Everyone’s sick and tired of hearing that the Wings lost, they didn’t have a complete effort, and they pissed away points they now desperately need. So I won’t say any of that again.
First Period
Before the game, the FSD crew talked about how the Wings needed to stay out of the penalty box, so of course what happens? Danny Cleary takes a high sticking penalty 1:51 into the 1st period and it bit them in the butt. Kuznetsov took a shot, the puck deflected off Drew Miller’s stick and up over Mrazek’s glove [Video]. The Capitals outplayed, outshot, and outscored the Wings in the 1st period, and the Wings had 4 giveaways to the Capitals’ 1. Scoring chances were 7-3 in Washington’s favor.
Thought of the period: Hey, you guys know you’re allowed to play in the offensive zone, right? The Wings looked sloppy and too sluggish.
Second Period
This period started out much better, with the Wings even playing in Washington’s zone. Glendening drew a penalty for being a pain in the crease, and the Wings got the first 9 shots on goal. Unfortunately, despite the much improved play, the Capitals struck again when Mike Green shot the puck, Drew Miller tried to block it, it went through his legs and it looked like he partially screened Mrazek. Mrazek got piece of the puck, but it bounced up over his glove anyway. It was eerily similar to the Caps first goal. Shot from the same spot on the ice, deflected by Drew Miller, screened by Drew Miller? up and over Mrazek’s glove [Video] and it’s 2-0 Caps. Tom Wilson hit Marek Zidlicky with a hard hit that the refs deemed legal, despite it being to Zidlicky’s head. Zid didn’t appreciate that hit and caught Tom Wilson with a great hip check later, and was penalized for it. Joel Ward mistook Petr Mrazek for a cot and decided to lie down on him, which resulted in 4on4 play for a bit. As Zidlicky’s penalty expired, the Wings had a short powerplay and Pavel Datsyuk dished the puck across the crease to Darren Helm who popped the puck into the open net [Video]. The comeback had begun, or so I thought. The Caps lead 2-1 on the scoreboard, but he Wings outshot them 16-6 in the 2nd period and were playing like they wanted to win the game.
Thought of the period: Well that’s better
Third Period
There wasn’t much going on play-wise in most of the 3rd period, but Pavel Datsyuk went off the ice in pain and hearts stopped at the thought of him being injured again. Thankfully, he returned a couple shifts later and hopefully he’s not hurt. There was no urgency from the Wings, while the Caps were content to just protect their one goal lead and that’s what doomed the Wings to getting zero points out of this game. In the last 3 or so minutes of the period the Wings were buzzing all over the place and had a half a dozen scoring chances that should have gone in. Playing like that for 3 minutes of a game you’re trailing in isn’t going to be enough most nights.
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The Wings had part of this game they played very well, but it wasn’t enough of the game. The Wings now drop down to the 2nd wild card spot in the East and the Ottawa Senators could potentially knock them out of a playoff spot all together. Considering the urgent nature of getting points out of this game, the team didn’t play like it.
You want to make the playoffs for a 24th straight season, Wings? You have to go out and take it. You’re gong to have to grab these remaining games and dry hump them into submission, or you’ll have a very long summer to think about what you should have done differently.
Losing sucks.
